Exercise and Warm ups
The main goals of a warm-up is to prepare your body, reduce your risk of injury and improve the efficiency and optimal performance of your movements.
Warm-ups are particularly beneficial when they are included at the start of any exercise session, and again before specific exercises involving one or more muscle groups. Warm-ups should be viewed where your goal should be to reduce your injury risk and improve movement efficiency to allow for optimal performance or adaptation to occur.
Warm-ups through oxygenated and increased blood flow and warmer blood, increase muscle temperature, (vasodilation or increased blood flow), improved joint range of motion (ROM) by reducing the viscosity (thickness) of the tissue and creating a warmer muscle. A warmer muscle has the potential to contract more forcefully and at a faster rate than cold muscles.
Skipping a warm-up that replicates movements in your activity increases the likelihood of injury, as muscles fibres are not functioning efficiency, they are not stabilised, and a maximum range of motion has not been established.
What are our Aims for a warm up and when?
(1) Increased Heart Rate. A warm up could include cycling, rowing, skipping, jogging, cross trainer or simply un-weighted or supported squats – even arm and leg swings.
Start out light, increase the range and tempo slowly as you proceed. Depending on the climate, temperature and overall health the time spent warming up will vary. Focus on a point where you are breathing at a faster rate than normal to achieve a good warm-up.
(2) Increased range of muscle
Before we load up our muscles, we use a warm up set to help optimise the range of a muscle and to increase the take up of a muscle’s fibres. This process is often seen in weight training as a light set to begin, then increasing the weight or loading with subsequent sets.
eg. A dumbbell Press. The aim should be to:
(a) maximize the range of the muscle movement and set a margin of error for future sets using heavier weights. During your first set, you would consciously increase the range of the downward movement as the set progresses. A good guide for setting your range is doing a DB Press on a Fitball, where your elbows would drop to the Fitball on the down phase. When you increase the weight you would only drop your elbows to level with your shoulders, giving you a “range of error” protection.
(b) as quickly as possible, increase the muscles fibres recruited. You can trick your muscles into recruiting more muscle fibres earlier by using some instability techniques to increase a loading without increasing the physical weight. eg A single arm Dumbbell Press or a Single Arm Dumbbell Side Raise, while standing on one foot. But ultimately focus on squeezing the muscle you are targeting. A warm up set should not just be “going through the motion”.
Duration
In winter this may take longer, in summer you may feel warmed up quicker. The first indication of a successful warm up is when you notice that you are breathing harder. You are then ready to begin increasing your exercise loads.
A good warm up will increase your blood flow and breathing rate. It helps your balance and coordination, improves muscular strength and reduces your risk of injury.